


Smothered Flame

by Catw00man



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Compliant, Community: fma_fic_contest, M/M, Post Manga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:18:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catw00man/pseuds/Catw00man
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'll never understand the extinction of this particular flame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smothered Flame

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this before seeing/reading the end of Brotherhood. I'd heard Ed ended up running off to marry Winry and have babies and...I didn't handle it well. Neither did Roy. I must say I agree with him! ;-)
> 
> Written for the [fma_fic_contest](http://fma-fic-contest.livejournal.com) for the prompt: _Flame_

Roy never imagined he’d see that particular fire go out, but he probably should have. He knew better than anyone the reasons behind Fullmetal’s single minded devotion to restoring his brother, and now that he’s achieved his goal it makes a certain amount of sense that he’s not the same. But that doesn’t mean he agrees with it. 

Fullmetal lost his alchemy and granted that is a huge, life changing event, but it’s not the first he’s endured and it shouldn’t be the last. It’s an inconvenience, a strong hindrance at best. It’s not the end of his dazzling existence except, for all intents and purposes, it is. From the first time he heard rumors about his plan to go back to Resembool and “settle down” he’s been disgusted by it. Edward has a brilliant mind, he’s an arguable genius who could do so much more than settling down and having babies, but maybe that’s Roy’s own ambition talking. Still, he had to try and talk some sense into him.

That went over well.

After everything they’d been through he expected to be met with a certain amount of respect, but from the time Fullmetal put in his request to be discharged from the military it’s as if he’d become incapable of keeping his disdain for Amestris blue in check. Roy tried to explain to him that he could do more, that he could become a _real_ soldier and use that exceptional mind for loftier goals. He could use a man like Edward to help rebuild the country and he told him so. For a glimmering instant he thought he saw something. 

It was just a brief flash of the old burning flame in those golden eyes, a spark from the ember Roy could always stoke into a raging inferno. But not this time. This time he only laughed and shook his head. He was finished. Done. And Roy was no longer going to be the one to manipulate him anymore. The words should have stung, even though they were delivered in a clam, cool voice so unlike any exchange he’d ever had with him before. But the words weren’t the thing that still eats at Roy now. It was the dull, emptiness that dimmed his once shining eyes when he mentioned his plans to finally ask the Rockbell girl to marry him. It was if he were throwing in the towel for good and Roy still can’t understand why.

Hawkeye compared him to a shooting star, that after everything he’d been through he just didn’t have anything left. It could be true. Maybe he can be happy giving up and wasting that mind on a family and nothing more. If anything it should keep him safe. But what about that flame inside him that at time’s rivaled his own? Can he really put it out for good?

Time will only tell and time is something Roy has plenty of.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and concrit are always loved and appreciated. :-)


End file.
